


Sinking Feeling

by Lafeae



Series: Brotherhood [16]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Kidnapping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2018-06-11
Packaged: 2019-05-20 10:12:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14892677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lafeae/pseuds/Lafeae
Summary: Kidnapping is kidnapping, and it feels old hat for Mokuba.Kaiba is always at the ready to save his brother, with plans in place for such events.But Jounouchi is a brother too, and unwilling to let Mokuba suffer, becoming an unlikely partner to Kaiba in saving Mokuba.





	1. Part I

**Author's Note:**

> The word prompt was ‘anchor’ and was specified to be ‘a literal anchor’.

On Saturday morning, once the sleep had been shaken from him, Mokuba approached his brother’s study and announced that he was going to the arcade with Yugi and his friends. Though he said it definite intent, he still hung in the office doorway and stared at his brother, hunched over his desk.

“Call when you arrive,” Kaiba said, not looking up. It was an automated response, but one Mokuba wanted to hear to know that he was given permission he hadn’t asked for. 

He ran into the room, gave Kaiba a quick hug, and then ran back out. The thundering down the stairs, and subsequent door slamming, told Kaiba that Mokuba had left. 

The call was made to Kaiba as soon as the car pulled up to the curb, and Mokuba sent the driver away as he bolted into the candy-coloured building, soft pop music playing over the radio. It was clustered with plenty of different machines, UFO Catchers hanging by the door ready to take the last yen. Mokuba bolted past them, to a row of pinball machines, Jounouchi heavily concentrated while playing one, with Honda hanging off the side.

“‘Bout time!” Honda said, and slapped Jounouchi’s arm to show him Mokuba. The blond slapped back, and playfully shoved Honda when the ball fell past the flippers.

“Where’s Yugi?” Mokuba asked. He was already feeding bills into a machine, 100 yen coins clattering into the tray. Honda nodded further back, to where Yugi was at a table across from Anzu, both of them staring at a middle screen, mashing buttons. Both were chuckling, with Anzu leaning back after a second, sighing, and glancing up to Mokuba. Yugi turned around and smiled, exclaiming: “Hey! You made it!”

Mokuba beamed, and he looked back at Jounouchi and Honda, having changed places at the pinball machine. “Can I play with you?” Mokuba asked Yugi, after overlooking the old school game in the console.

“Sure,” Yugi said. Anzu was already getting out of her seat, and Mokuba slipped in, feeding the coins into his side.

It went like that for a good hour or more, constantly shifting around, taking Jounouchi on at a racing game, Honda at a shooter. All the while being closed lipped about all the games he and Kaiba had been working on in KaibaLand’s arcade. Even when he almost slipped and Jounouchi followed him around, demanding for Mokuba to tell them, with Yugi trying to calm the insistent blond.

Honda, Jounouchi, and Anzu hung over the chairs of a brawling game as Yugi and Mokuba played, being the peanut gallery, when Honda batted Jounouchi’s arm. The blond looked over and up, seeing an old and familiar group of thugs enter the arcade. Jounouchi shifted his body to cover as much of both chairs as he could, and he nodded at Anzu, eyes cast to the doors. She backed away. 

“Well, well, well. Really starting a babysitting service, eh Jou?” A larger man asked.

Jounouchi sneered. “Piss off, Hirutani.”

A large hand sat on the edge of Mokuba’s chair. “Lookit this one, he’s even tinier.”

Mokuba didn’t even look at the gang that was surrounding them, instead focusing on mashing buttons for a combo against Yugi. “Yeah, and don’t go messin’ with him, either, or I kick your ass,” Jounouchi warned, and he saw that Anzu had strolled out the door.

“Hey, boss, ain’t that the Kaiba brat?” One of the goons asked, snickering and reaching for Mokuba’s head to pat it. Jounouchi swatted the hand away. “Wonder how much he’s got on him.” 

Hirutani and his goons moved in closer, with Honda and Jounouchi encapsulating the chairs, instinctively making themselves as wide as the two chairs. Mokuba’s fist hit the console in frustration as he was KO’d, and turned to Yugi asking: “Again?” 

Yugi stared at Mokuba, then to the circle of people around them. Unease was in his stomach, but Mokuba seemed calm and collected, ignoring those around him. “Uh, sure, yeah...”

Mokuba dug in his pockets to grab more coins, but stopped when he found none. With little effort, he propelled out from the seat and ducked under a leering Hirutani to head back towards the change machine. His arm was grabbed, though the goon was quickly shoved away by Honda.

“Anyone else need change?” Mokuba asked.

“Uh...Mokuba-kun?” Yugi asked, his eyes flicking around the group surrounding them. The others were shaking their heads as Mokuba eyed them. “No, no we’re okay.”

The boy smiled and walked over to the machine, squeezing by the goons. Just beyond the sound of coins clinking into the tray, Mokuba could hear the clatter of footsteps as Jounouchi grabbed one of the goons by the collar and shoved him into another, Honda backing him up. In the middle of it, the pair noticed a few coins whizzing by their ears, hitting the goons in the face and chest.

One hit Hirutani square in the forehead.

“You looked like you needed some _sense_ ,” Mokuba chuckled, another coin in his hand and arched back. One of the goons had knelt down to pick the coins up from off the floor.

Jounouchi looked back at Mokuba, and for a flash of a second, saw Kaiba’s self-assured expression on the boy’s face. That, and something a little maniacal.

The door jangled open as Hirutani began to rush towards Mokuba, stopped by a ‘hey boss!’. Anzu stood beside a police officer, stepping through the arcade and eyeing everyone involved. Jounouchi and Honda backed up closer to Mokuba, out of the fray. The gang corralled together and shouldered out of the arcade, sneering both at Mokuba and the officer in the meanwhile.

The few stray coins that had thrown were being picked up by Mokuba, placed back in the palm of his hand. “You okay, Mokuba-kun?” Yugi asked.

“Huh? Yeah, why?” Mokuba asked, and slipped back into the chair, feeding coins into the slot. “Ready?”

From behind, Jounouchi and Honda exchanges knowing looks of: ‘you see this kid?’ and ‘he’s got some guts’. At least they knew he could hold his own, and be a little mischievous in the meanwhile; he was worth a laugh after the crisis had averted.

Deep down, as Jounouchi lingered over the kid, he though about how there was more to it. Kaiba had, while unsaid, trusted them enough to leave Mokuba with them for extended periods of time. And while the extent of that trust had been debated between Jounouchi and Honda on more than one occasion (“Can we even call it trust? He may be sending Mokuba as a spy,” Honda had once suggested), the last thing Jounouchi wanted to do was betray it, no matter how little he and Kaiba properly got along. Because Mokuba and Kaiba weren’t the same person, plain and simple, and it was nice to see him smiling and having fun—being a kid.

While they played for the next hour or so, Jounouchi would occasionally pace around, looking up and down the wide streets for any signs of the thugs, though they were clear. They stayed and played until Mokuba announced: “I’m hungry, anyone else?” And pointed across the street to fast food joint, to which they all agreed to stop for the day and grab lunch.

Mokuba walked ahead of them, as if trying to keep ahead of their pace, almost running to cross the street. A motorcycle roared through a light.

One blink, Jounouchi saw Mokuba at the curb. The next, he was gone.

Fearing the worst, Jounouchi expected a small splatter on the pavement, with his relief temporarily calmed when he couldn’t find a body. Instead, a different panic set in. Mokuba had been snatched up and was under the arm of a familiar blur, flailing about and screaming English obscenities that would make Jounouchi’s father blush. Two more motorcycles roared by.

“That stupid prick!” Jounouchi roared as he grabbed ahold of Honda’s arm, pulling him the brunet’s motorcycle and pushing him onto it while he jumped on the back. “Follow ‘em!” He commanded, and glanced back at a shocked Yugi and Anzu, at a loss of what to do and asking one another while Anzu waved her hands and was nearly crying.

The motorcycle whipped out of the spot, and Jounouchi spared a glance back at Anzu, tugging her phone out of her bag, too late, because Yugi already had one to his ear. “Gun it, man!” Jounouchi shouted, his arms cinching tight around Honda’s waist, knowing there really wasn’t much space for them to both be on the bike. “We can’t lose ‘em!”

“Jou, if I get pulled over doin’ this...!”

“You tell that to Kaiba when he asks why we didn’t do every fuckin’ thing we could for his baby brother!” Jounouchi pinched Honda’s side as he yelled. “Go! They turned right!”

As they quickly bared right, Jounouchi found himself simmering, hoping that they would be able to take care of this without getting Kaiba involved.

—

Two different phones went off simultaneously. Kaiba’s cell phone chirped to the left, and the office phone rang to right. Hairs on the back of Kaiba’s neck prickled up, looking at Yugi’s number flashing across his cell phone. The office phone was answered on speaker as he put the cell to his ear.

Before anyone spoke, he was already out of the chair. “Kaiba Seto,” he answered, loud enough that both phones would pick it up.

“Kaiba-kun, something’s happened!” Yugi said. 

“....ya drop better not drop me...!” Came from the office phone. 

Mokuba’s panicked voice prickled in his ears, strained and angry. He could barely hear his brother over the sound of a loud engine. There was a small shriek from him, growing faint, before the noise of the traffic whizzing by. He could hear Mokuba cussing away in the faintest distance.

“Speak up, Mutou,” Kaiba ordered, and pulled the office phone in close to hear the sounds. His fingers were already whizzing over the laptop keyboard, flashing window after window until he was able to live track the signal coming from Mokuba’s cell phone.

“We were crossing the street, getting food, someone on a motorcycle grabbed Mokuba-kun! We don’t know where they’re going. Jou and Honda are following them.”

“Did they appear armed?” Kaiba asked, doing his best to remain calm.  They were moving fast, Kaiba concluded. He set the cell phone down, also putting it on speaker, and linked it to his laptop to grab the fast moving signal, going straight through the main causeway of Domino. 

“I’m not sure Kaiba-kun,” Yugi said. “We barely saw them. We...”

“Of course you didn’t,” Kaiba sneered. He slammed the laptop closed when the data finished the transfer. It was in time to hear Mokuba’s voice drop off and the call disconnect. “Tell the mutt to keep his distance.” Kaiba didn’t wait for Yugi to respond, ending the call and snatching his car keys off the desk as he stormed out. 

Judging by the path that Mokuba’s phone was taking, they were headed straight for Domino Pier.

Kaiba dialled Isono’s number, saying: “Meet me at the pier, we have a situation.”

—

Somewhere along the way, the following pair had been cut off, left a mile or two behind. Jounouchi angrily growled in Honda’s ear as they tried to roughly manuever down a congested street that was dropping towards the coastline. Pristine water of the bay began to reveal itself as the pair zoomed through a red light, narrowly missing a car from their left side, correcting themselves and turning down a narrow street.

The gang had taken quick and jagged turns, aware they were being followed, and at one point, the three bikes had split up to follow different paths. Jounouchi was racking his brain for where they might be going, instructing Honda to head for the pier. It was the closest place he could imagine them going.

While the pair searched for the quickest route, Mokuba had already been thrown from the stopped motorcycle, kicking and screaming in steel-cord arms while the other goons played with a rig across a narrow strip of water.

They were at what looked like an old boat dock falling into disuse, the wood splinted, the concrete chipped, and the metal eaten away with algae. They were surrounded by crates of some kind, stacked like a miniature sky-line. This spot had been used as some kind of hangout, he gathered, by the food wrappers and soda cans littered around. 

Mokuba threw elbows, knees, and heels into the meat of the man who held him. Hirutani, he recalled Jounouchi saying. It didn’t seem to faze him much, even as Mokuba tried his best to wriggle and hit the sensitive parts. He was being walked to small catwalk, precariously balanced in the center of the strip of water, stopping any boats from docking there. It was just as dilapidated, if not worse, than the rest of the place. 

“You’re gonna regret this, ya know!” Mokuba shouted. He was set to the ground, forearms held tight as a length of rope was tied around them.

“Nah, kid, I’m gonna enjoy this,” Hirutani said, and pushed Mokuba onto the thin catwalk. It shuddered and squeaked under his small weight. His ankles were grabbed, another length of rope fashioned to them while he viciously kicked, even to the point of flicking one of his shoes off and trying to aim for the thug’s head. As he was finished being bound, one of the goons came around, pulling tight to heavy chain, a hook at the end of it. It was snagged into the folds of rope and cranked, pulling Mokuba’s arms over his head and dragging his body out to the middle of the catwalk.

The metal groaned beneath his body, now forced into a standing posture while his knees wobbled about. Somewhere, the catwalk was detached and the water bobbed it around. When Mokuba tried to push himself in one direction, he was drawn taut in another. Looking over, he saw that his weight was being counterbalanced by an old anchor attached to the chain, pulling him tight.


	2. Part II

Jounouchi and Honda had ditched the motorcycle and were running down the length of the pier, checking any and all dockside spaces. Jounouchi was sure he had heard at least one of the motorcycles nearby, they just had to find it. When the blond’s phone rang, he pulled it out, not even looking at who it might be, wanting it to be silent as quick a possible so they could sneak up on the gang.

“Sup?” He asked, voice low. His head rouletted through all the possible people he was about hear, not discounting the possibility of the universe being ill-timed as it ever was. So long as it wasn’t Kaiba....

Yugi’s voice chirped through: “Jou! I just called Kaiba-kun and told him what’s happening.”

“Oh great,” Jounouchi sighed. “Which one of us is he killin’ first?”

“Jou?”

“Never mind. What’d moneybags say?”

“That...you should keep your distance,” Yugi answered. Jounouchi scoffed.

“If he knew the whole story, he wouldn’t be sayin’ that.” Jounouchi kept his voice as low as he was able, creeping slowly around the docks, pretending to admire the boats that were laid out in a clean row up and down the pier. It wasn’t the kind of place, the pristine side of the pier, that they were looking for—it wasn’t as if he expected Hirutani to have suddenly acquired a boat and shipped Mokuba across the Pacific. 

But he did know that extortion was the gang’s favourite pastime. Mokuba was just the biggest catch they had ever reeled in. As if it wasn’t always about money and power when it came to dealing with Mokuba’s captures. This didn’t even feel as high profile as dealing with Pegasus, but it was still jarring.

“Look, Yug’, I gotta go. Since ya called Kaiba already, call the police and tell ‘em we’re pier or somethin’. If they can get here in time,” Jounouchi said.

“I know, I think Anzu has already,” Yugi said, and they said their goodbyes.

The further down the pier they crept, the more dilapidated it became. Less well-kept in comparison to the large fishing vessels and the yacht or two at the far end. And why he hadn’t started there to begin with was beyond him. “‘Keep your distance’,” Jounouchi muttered. “Believe that? Kaiba wants me to keep my distance? I don’t think so, not with these idiots.”

Honda shook his head. “I dunno Jou, maybe we should listen to him. If somethin’ bad happens while it’s just us, and Kaiba wasn’t here to...”

“We’re gonna be filleted no matter what we do,” Jounouchi argued. “So we’re gonna do somethin’.”

“I just don’t think that—“

Jounouchi reached back, his hand landing somewhere in the vicinity of Honda’s face to quiet him. Once they had reached what looks like piles of forgotten equipment and stacks of wooden cargo containers, he could hear voices in the wind.

His hands braced the sides of the crates while he knelt down, eyes level with the dock that was ahead of them. Hirutani’s laughter was deep and unmissable as it had been in middle school.

“How’s that feel, kid, huh? How ‘bout another one?”The rest of the goons were chuckling along as coins were being tossed at Mokuba, pelting him in the chest and arms while he kept his head ducked down. “How’d ya put it? ‘You looked like you needed a little sense’.”

Another round of raucous laughter. “You probably don’t even get what that means,” Mokuba fired back. A larger coin was chucked at Mokuba, hitting him in the nose. Another round of laughter.

“Shut your trap, kid!”

“You probably don’t know what you’re doing, either,” Mokuba challenged.

“I’m ransoming you, kid. What the hell else you think? Stupid brat,” Hirutani said. The rest of the group cracked up in laughter. “What else are you good for?”

Jounouchi slipped around the backside of the crates, going closer to the edge of the dock to get a better position to spring his surprise. The conversation was loud and clear, even over the crash of water against the dock.

“You have to call someone first to ransom me, dimwit,” Mokuba said. It didn’t seem like he was having much trouble holding his own despite his precarious balancing act and subsequent assault. His voice didn’t even quiver. “That’s how this works.” 

Jounouchi rolled his eyes and bit back laughter. “You already did that for me, didn’t you kid? Didn’t you call your big brother? Huh?”

A pause from Mokuba, his writhing silenced. Jounouchi popped his head up to catch the glare, with Mokuba’s nose curled and eyes thin as slivers, glinting and glaring. “Maybe you’re not so stupid,” the boy scoffed when he found words. “But you’re still an idiot anyways.”

Like in the arcade before, Jounouchi saw and heard the self-assured confidence that was instilled in the smaller Kaiba brother, but it wasn’t the face of a child that stared down his captors, likely to their dismay. Mokuba held his ground like someone three times his age.

What Jounouchi didn’t see was how Mokuba was constantly shifting his weight until his thighs and back were taut, pulled at the constant shiver of the metal below him. His stance was uneven, one shoe lost to the water and bobbing away, with his sock already soaked through to the skin. The wind off the ocean was chilled and burned his nose and eyes with salt. The rope rubbed against his wrists as he shook to try and at least get one loop out.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the great Kaiba Seto,” Hirutani said. He had been tossing a coin in the air and catching it while staring Mokuba down, watching his prey squirm while he waited, and he felt enough time passed, he reeled his arm back, coin in hand. Jounouchi leapt from his spot, grabbing onto the thug’s wrist and using the backwards momentum to thrust him onto his ground. The coin fell out of Hirutani’s hand and rolled off the edge of the pier, dropping into the water.

“You ain’t gonna be meetin’ him, asshole! I’m gonna knock your lights out first,” Jou said, and he pinned Hirutani to the ground.

Mokuba’s eyes lit up. “Jou!”

“You piece of shit!” Hirutani roared, tossing Jounouchi off of him and reversed the pin. “You never picked the right fights.”

Jounouchi kicked Hirutani in stomach and slipped out. The other goons began to come around him, and there were more than the two motorcycles had suggested. A cursory glance suggested five or six, and he had to shuffle out of the way as they began to bear down, trying to tackle him to the ground. Two of them landed on top of each other, the other two circling around Honda as he emerged, running towards the mechanism that had Mokuba bound to the catwalk.

They approached Honda with the same stumbling fervor as those surrounding Jounouchi, almost fighting one another to grab ahold of him, with one succeeding to almost toss him into the water. All brawn, but little coordination worked for Honda, who kept looking back at the mechanism to figure out how to crank it back. He was able to push them away and throw punches at the pair.

Jounouchi didn’t have time to look at his friend, other than to assure himself that Honda was still alright. It cost him a fist in the face, his head spinning, blood between his teeth, as he recouped and focused on the pair. He gathered speed and clotheslined one into the other.

“Jou! Your right!” Mokuba shouted, watching as Hirutani flew forward, switchblade revealed. One of the goons grabbed Jounouchi by the arm to try and hold him in place for the plunge of the knife. His elbow shot back, smashing into the throat of whoever held him, smiling when he heard a wet gagging noise. The blade caught into his jacket, shredding up the cuff, pulling hair from his forearm as Jounouchi backed away. 

Mokuba trembled in place, head back and forth to catch all sides of the fights. Honda kept getting close to the mechanism, only to be backed away each time, at one point taking the brunt of a punch in the gut. The longer it went on, the more Mokuba became afraid of the outcome. Jounouchi and Honda may have made a good distraction, giving the boy time to wriggle and writhe and play with his confines, but they weren’t making any headway.

Never would he admit he was afraid that something might happen, even if there was always a chance that it could. For Jounouchi, for Honda, and for his nii-sama, he had to put on the brave face and use whatever he could to aid himself. The hook was sharp enough, he thought, though once his arms released his legs were still bound. And there was still ocean water beneath him. He would figure it out, he told himself, and rocked back and forth to try and fray the rope.

In the process, he could feel his phone inching its way from his pocket, having been there haphazard from trying to stuff it in while still being driven away. His rhythmic shifting staggered to protecting the small device as if teetered on the edge of his pocket.

It fell in with a soft ‘plop’.

 

—

 

The car squealed around the right corner, stabilising as Kaiba shifted gears down the incline, resistance shuddering under the clutch. He tried once more, the stick locking into sixth gear. On the surface he remained calm, eyes focused on the road ahead, occasionally flicking to the map on his phone, to a dot that hadn’t moved in the past several minutes. He was right: Mokuba was at the pier, and it recalled thoughts of Battle City, and he wondered if Mokuba’s captors were lacking creativity.

Kaiba scoffed at himself—why think such terrible thoughts? As if the creativity of kidnap was given a score. Short of chaining Mokuba to his arm, the boy was always in danger, and assessing it in a tangible way made it easier. Made him a little less fearful of what he would run into.

The car almost flew as it jumped over a speed bump, and he gave another look to the map. Even if the spot was ingrained in his memory, to see that it had disappeared widened his eyes. His hand held tight to the gear shift, trying to push it further down the console.

The sparkle of the sinking sun caught against the horizon line, and below was the outline of the pier, enlarged with each blink. The car made a sharp left turn, threatening to fish-tail, and covered the long gap from entrance to end in ten seconds, coming to a hard stop. 

Kaiba kept his pace quick but proper, assessing the scene and diluting it down to all necessary pieces: Mokuba, first, held by chain overtop the water on a tetanus-bearing catwalk. Jounouchi, second, dodging punches from three separate assailants, with their punches a hair too short. Three, Honda, furthest away, losing his battle to reach some the mechanism in control of the chain Mokuba was tethered to.

Mokuba didn’t announce his brother’s presence as he strode by the scuffle Jounouchi was ducking, and it wasn’t until Kaiba was halfway between both frays before he heard: “Well, if it isn’t the man of the hour!”

Kaiba had stopped mid-step, adjusting his stance to pivot towards the source of the voice. A large man who had stepped back from Jounouchi while two other goons were taken still being taken on. The blond hadn’t spared any glances to Kaiba. None that were seen. He was too busy ramming the head of one of the distracted goons into a crate with solid ‘thud’, followed by only the whites of his eyes showing.

“We should do some negotiatin’, business man to business man,” Hirutani said. “I have a big-mouthed fish here for sale, how much would you be willin’ to part with for it?”

Kaiba sneered. “‘Businessman, how quaint,” he responded. Jounouchi heard the dangerous lilt in Kaiba’s voice as he crossed his arms. “I don’t negotiate with trash, unfortunately.”

Hirutani shuffled closer to the catwalk, his knife brandished. “Maybe I should cut into ‘im first, then? See how pink he is. Maybe that’ll change your mind.”

Hirutani had stepped onto the catwalk, and the entire structure shuddered and sunk several inches just by half his weight. It caused him to jump, and Mokuba to hiss as his feet danced around the now stretched surface, toes barely able to grip the sides. 

As they spoke, footsteps rumbled behind Kaiba who, with little pause, swept to the side and grabbed the arm of the goon trying to jump him, twisting his arm behind him in a way that it shouldn’t have, pushing it all the way to the back and forcing the goon down to the ground.  A heel to the cheek silenced any of the squeals that might have been made.

Honda regained some footing, tackling into one of the goons and pushing him into a metal container, watching him become jarred and slip down to his knees while holding his head. He caught the back half of Kaiba’s display, breath caught in his chest, not sure when the executive had become so automated.

Jounouchi was making healthy headway into his other opponent, grabbing the goon by the arm and tossing him onto his back. He tried to get up, sweeping at Jounouchi’s feet and dropping the blond into a wrestling match, sweaty hands clawing at Jounouchi’s neck.

Kaiba had taken the opposite direction, towards Honda, stepping over the shaken legs of the man that Honda hadn’t fully knocked out, catching the shake of eyes and hands, even while the goon tried to grab Kaiba’s ankle. A jerk and stomp, first on a hand, and then into the stomach like a drill. Kaiba picked him up by the collar. In his peripheral, Honda had been abandoned in favor for larger prey, with Kaiba shifting to first use the half-conscious goon as a shield from a punch aimed at his temple, before tossing the shield down hooking a foot against the second goon’s ankle, redirecting a punch with his left hand while the the butt of his right drilled into the soft flesh under the goon’s jaw. The second dropped on top of the first.

Breathless, Honda eyed Kaiba with the same scrutiny as if he’d see a demon. The executive hadn’t even broken a sweat, and his hands were back to flat at his sides. Honda leapt at the first chance to finally free Mokuba, stopped when Kaiba said: “Do it now and you risk his life.”

Brow raised, Honda stood erect by the mechanism and let his eyes follow Kaiba as he strode back over to Jounouchi’s side, avoiding the blond constricting himself around a flailing goon, going straight for Hirutani instead.

“Don’t take a step closer!” Hirutani growled, his voice breaking towards the end. The blade was pointed towards Kaiba. The brunet didn’t pause his advance.

The gang boss stepped back over and settled his foot on the catwalk. It dipped inward, slipping Mokuba’s strained feet further until he let out a weak cry, his whole body stretched to the maximum to hold onto something.

There, Kaiba stopped, and felt himself pull in his restraint, quell his worry. Hirutani smelled it and cackled, his hand trembling. “That’s right, you rich bastard, stay right there.” The foot pressed deeper on the disassembling catwalk. 

“You have no clue who you’re talkin’ to, Hirutani,” Jounouchi said, still wrestling the goon into submission, pressing his nose into cement.

“So that’s it huh, Jou? You’re his bitch?”

“Fuck no! I’m here for the kid, numbnuts! But jus’ so you know, there’s only one person I’m afraid of here, an’ it sure as shit ain’t you.”

Hirutani’s jaw clenched, seething, eyes darting between Jounouchi and Kaiba. He stiffened and removed his foot from the catwalk as Kaiba took a step forward. And another. And another, one step at a time, until Hirutani felt air under one foot, the edge of the pier behind him.

Cornered and angered, he ran towards Kaiba, yelling and stabbing the knife forward. Kaiba took a single step back, just enough space to reactand twist his entire body into motion, Hirutani’s wrist snatched up and pummelled as his elbow drilled down, cracking bone while his foot shot into the groin. The knife clattered away, and as Hirutani fell forward, Kaiba grabbed the thug’s head between his hands and thrust him down into a waiting knee. Blood gushed from his nose, and Hirutani was tossed away.

Mokuba struggled in his deteriorated state, no longer watching the situation around him, frantically searching for foot space and arching his back to keep tight hold to the sinking structure. He jounced about, still trying to cut the rope with the hook, even as the metal below cried for him not to. The panic was stronger, his arms bearing the brunt of his weight when he was forced to curl his knees up.

The constant movement had shifted the small anchor countering Mokuba’s weight, and it clattered to the ground before Honda could even turn and see that it was loosened. He lunged to grab it, to grab anything, hands slapped away by chains eager to unwind.

The catwalk tilted down and away from Mokuba as the chain dropped, and his body went into free fall, hitting the water with force so hard that all the air expelled from his lungs.

Jounouchi pounded the goon’s head into the ground, savage and sharp. He uncoiled from the unconscious body when he heard the sickened crack against the water. “Mokuba!”

The blond hadn’t even stood when Kaiba dove through the water, gone to the murky depths below.

Cars, some with flashing lights, some with Kaiba’s staff, were arriving on scene when Jounouchi sprinted over to Honda, helping him grab the chain, putting all of his force against the crank just to hold it in place. He sucked in breath and kept looking to the stirring water, counting the seconds in his head.

“C’mon, Kaiba,” Jounouchi whispered. Honda had joined him in watching.

_Twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three..._

“Where’s Seto-sama?” Isono asked, with police joining behind him.

_Twenty-seven, twenty-eight, twenty-nine..._

“Kaiba went under with Mokuba,” Honda told them, and grunted as he almost lost the chain, “they ain’t come up yet.”

_Thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five..._

_“_ Call a medic!” Isono commanded, and he stood at the water’s edge, looking down at the calmed waters. Jounouchi couldn’t hold his breath any longer.

_Thirty-nine, forty, forty-one..._

_Forty-two..._

_Forty-three..._

A mess of brown hair broke the surface, hand clawing at any tangible surface. Jounouchi strained his eyes to catch sight of a blob of black and matted hair also breaking the surface, the small and pale body curled close to his brother’s chest. The chain was let go. Jounouchi dropped to his knees and skidded over to Kaiba, grabbing the executive’s wrist and helping him as he struggled to pull himself up one-handed. Isono leaned on the other side, holding onto his employer, guiding and guarding him like a parent would an injured child. 

Once up, Kaiba sat on the ground with his body shielding the smaller life that hung in his arms, pressed to his chest, head flopped back and eyes closed. When Isono tried to get close and pry Mokuba away, Kaiba flinched and tightened his grip, though he had turned Mokuba’s head to the side and was raking his fingers through the wetted clumps of hair to pull them away from the boy’s pale face.

Jounouchi sat frozen, eyes flicking up to Isono as he barked orders around at the other people on scene. A towel was placed close to Kaiba, who took it and cradled it behind Mokuba’s head.

A ragged cough racked Mokuba’s body. Water sputtered out of his mouth. His eyes opened, roved around, and then he shot up, latching his arms around his nii-sama’s neck. It was reciprocated, Kaiba’s nose buried in the salt-soaked strands. His fingers raked through them, pinching the ends just to feel them.

Kaiba’s body unfolded to full height, adjusting Mokuba in his arms to carry him as they rose. Jounouchi stood as well, and noted that the boy’s ankles were no longer tied. “Kaiba, I’m sor—“

“Save it, mutt,” Kaiba spat. “If it weren’t for you, this would have never happened. You disobeyed my instructions, and you...”

“Nii-sama,” Mokuba said, sleepy, his head burying into Kaiba’s neck, “don’ be mad. ‘S my fault, not his...he helped.”

Kaiba regarded Jounouchi with tired, scrutinising eyes, searching for meaning to Mokuba’s words. He saw the blood hanging from Jounouchi’s lips, the bruised and torn-up knuckles, and the tears in his clothes.

“Isono?”

“Yes, Seto-sama?”

“Take Jounouchi to the be examined by the medic,” he commanded.

He walked away, taking Mokuba over to the waiting stretcher, though the boy wouldn’t release from his older brother’s neck. Kaiba sat on it instead, cradling Mokuba and bowing his head, grateful that tears and ocean water looked the same on his cheeks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a hard time not see light Puppyshipping here. I suppose you can if you squint. 
> 
> Hopefully you liked it.


End file.
